Snapshots
by malfoyforever
Summary: Lea Jackson - Percy and Annabeth's young daughter - is confused. What DOES 'knocked up' mean, anyways? And why are the adults careful, all of a sudden? The third snapshot into the lives of the characters in 'The Penetrator of Darkness' universe.
1. Mind Baby

**Mind Baby**

Severus Snape found the baby on his doorstep on a sunny, cold December day.

He remembered it crystal clearly, even years afterwards: he'd been home for the Christmas holidays, for once, and lazily flicking through the channels on the ancient black and white television in his living room when he'd heard loud, mewling cries from the outside. Evidently curious, Severus had quickly slipped into his fur-lined winter coat and had opened the door.

He'd been expecting to find a kitten.

Instead, Severus stared at the baby in the golden crib on his doorstep once. It – _he or she_, Severus corrected internally – was wrapped in a bundle of bulky blankets, sporting an amusing little blue bonnet on his head. _He, then_. His eyes were open – they were a dark brown that would eventually turn into a vivid, stormy grey.

When he picked him up, the baby immediately stopped bawling, staring at him with wide dark brown eyes.

"Who _are_ you?" Severus asked, sighing. It wasn't as if he needed any answer, though. He had seen enough of his father's brats at the base, and if this little one's crib was any indication – yes, Severus was sure that this child was what Pa called a mind baby.

The more the man looked at the baby, though, the more unsettled he grew. Severus then realised the problem – the baby resembled _him_! He had the same hooked nose, the same shape of eyes, the same colouring, and the same colour of hair. When he gazed at the baby's head with the bonnet removed, he saw that the only thing different about the baby was that there were tufts of curly hair on his head.

_Curly hair_. Eileen Prince hadn't had curly hair, and neither did her son have any.

Severus's father, though, did.

It clicked into place. Severus's eyes narrowed. His bastard of a father had been involved with the _goddess of wisdom_? Tobias Snape wasn't exactly what you would call intelligent, except if you counted his incontestable skill with mechanics, which had earned him a promotion back in the days when he'd worked at the local mill.

There was also his talent with fire; but that was a different story.

Severus sighed and dragged in the golden crib, holding the baby with his other hand. "I hope I don't drop you, brother of mine," he drawled cynically, smirking a tad at the baby, who merely sucked his thumb, "It would be a _shame_. Come, you must be hungry – and freezing. Your mother's probably responsible for keeping you alive, eh?"

He opened his fridge, frowning at the lack of food inside.

_Oh, shit_. Severus then stupidly remembered that the stores were closed over Christmas. With a sigh, he picked up a bottle of water from the end of the fridge. "Am I supposed to warm this?" he muttered, narrowing his eyes at it, as if the water bottle would answer him. "Boiling would just burn the baby's throat – nah, better to just give him warm water."

He put down the baby in the golden crib. "Be good," Severus said.

Immediately, he felt silly and cursed himself. If the Weasley twins heard him right now...

Severus preferred to not think about it. Without further ado, he proceeded to warm the water, and then Conjured a baby bottle. "I hope this works," he told the baby – ahem, apparently his half-brother. He propped him up. "Pray that I don't choke you, little one, I'm not an expert in your care."

At that, he smirked. Severus was actually finding the whole process quite fascinating until the baby spat up – and then he thought sullenly about changing his spit-splattered robes before heading back to the base. His father definitely had some explaining to do...

_Ah, payback. _

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><p><strong>Right, so this is entirely compliant with <em>The Penetrator of Darkness: Year One<em>. For those who're reading Rose, Albus, and Scorpius' story: don't worry, I'm working on it, I have about half of the chapter done... This is just me exploring that world a little further. **

**Anyway, please read and review, especially if you favourited/alerted, and all that jazz :) **


	2. Holiday Spirit

**Holiday Spirit**

The holiday spirit hadn't escaped the three young residents of Room 32 of Rickman's Hill Orphanage. Tracy Lennar and Hero Gale, the two older children, had just gotten back from boarding school, and they were surprised and delighted to find that Aquarius Zamora, their roommate and little brother of sorts, had decorated their room with hand-made decorations.

"They're _beautiful_!" Tracy exclaimed, hugging the little blond boy to her breast. "I love them!"

"Thanks!" Aquarius said brightly, while Hero merely rolled his dark eyes in the progression of that all. The dark-haired boy simply wasn't a touchy-feely type, Tracy had discovered long ago; yet she loved him and the other boy like brothers. Here at the orphanage, it was useful to have allies and friends when, say, the director chewed you out publicly or when the village boys tripped you for the umpteenth time because you were an orphanage girl.

"We should make more," Tracy announced, making Hero jump in shock.

"Um... _What_?" The second year Slytherin mustered what remained of his dignity while he scanned the scattered pieces of tinsel and red and green construction paper. "I mean," he said with renewed strength, "It's very well decorated, it would be a shame to ruin such a... masterpiece."

Tracy's green eyes bore into his black as she smiled again. Hero sighed – Tracy had been all right when they were growing up, and it was right out bizarre that the atmosphere of Slytherin House hadn't affected her in the four years she had attended; in fact, she had become more enthusiastic than ever after returning from Hogwarts.

She, in turn, amended her enthusiasm to the knowledge Hogwarts procured her. Tracy was a studious student and a curious person, overall; when the supervisors of their wing of the orphanage sent her out to do errands, she always returned with a used paperback in her pocket, or two.

"It's the hols, Hero," she replied, "surely you can be a pleasant person for once."

He knew that she was only teasing him, but Hero was pissed off all the same. Pleasant person, his arse! He thought that he was a plentiful pleasant person, thank you very much – he merely happened to appreciate silence, far more than those two from the looks of it. "Fine," he grunted, partly because he was tired of arguing, and partly because he was curious of how the bloody hell would they decorate their room with practically no material at all. "What'd we do?"

Tracy shot him a look and opened a drawer from their desk, filled with coloured papers and scissors. "From here," she said, grinning at Aquarius and Hero. She took two sheets of construction paper and tossed them to Hero. "You can cut us out a Father Christmas-"

"Yeah, Father Christmas!" Aquarius exclaimed, in a voice that could only sound cute on a six-year-old.

When Hero continued to look at the sheets of construction paper suspiciously, Tracy said, "C'mon, Hero – you're not going to spend the _entire _evening reading your schoolbooks, are you? Christmas is a time for family." The last sentence wasn't entirely untrue, the girl mused, because it wasn't as if they had proper families, anyway.

Perhaps it was the word family that softened Hero's hardened heart. Whatever it was, the boy looked up and smiled – a rare expression of happiness was on his face. Hero Gale wasn't someone of particularly joyous character, Tracy thought. "Okay," Hero said, shrugging. "Might be kind of deformed, though, but whatever."

Tracy soon set Aquarius with the task of 'dressing' pictures of animals from the magazines they owned in Christmas clothes, and then went to open the door of their wardrobe. It was large, its wood long faded from its original maroon, and the smell of the inside made her sneeze. Nevertheless, she fished inside until she found what she had been looking for: a desk-size Christmas tree. At the surprised looks of her friends, she explained, "The last resident left it here when I moved in with Hero, years ago. I didn't think of it until today, though."

She was tempted to use her wand to obliterate the industrial quantities of dust in the synthetic pine tree, but decided against – she preferred the Muggle way of things than getting a notice filed from the Ministry of Magic. Using a tissue paper, she tried to remove the most dust she could.

"You mind?" Tracy asked, pointing to the gold tinsel protruding from Aquarius' earlier work. When he shook his head, she reached out and picked it off, examining it. Hmm. It looked long enough to cut in a few pieces to hang in the branches of the tree, she decided.

Once the decorations were completed and hung on the wall, the three children sat on their beds and examined their handiwork.

"Nice," Aquarius grinned, the first one to talk. "'Specially the tree."

"A way of speaking," Hero said in reply, ever the cryptic.

"I think we all did a great job," Tracy concluded, squeezing her younger roommates' shoulders. She cocked her head. "Hmm, the room's a bit quiet. Perhaps a bit of music?" Without waiting for the boys' responses, she walked over to the old wireless and turned it on.

_God rest ye merry, gentlemen... _

Christmas in Room 32 of Rickman Hill's Orphanage was necessarily a frugal affair, but the smiles on the boys' faces couldn't help but make Tracy Lennar's chest warm with an affectionate glow that only ever seemed to expand with the years.

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><p><strong>I love this chapter, though I have to say that the characters here will only appear at the earliest in year three, I think :P <strong>

**And Aquarius and Hero aren't completely random OCs... Any guess on their parentage? **

**Please read and review, especially if you favourited/alerted! **


	3. The Question

**The Question **

"You're _pregnant_?" his mother said, sounding stunned. "_Again_?"

Cooper Jackson pressed his ear harder against the door, wondering if he hadn't misheard it. He had known Rachel and Nico since birth – he shuddered at the thought of the two of them being naughty in bed, though that was how they had had their year-old son, Marco. His twin sister Eliza didn't miss the gesture. "You cold, Coop?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up. I'm trying to hear," Cooper snapped, closing his eyes. He tried to not fantasize punching his sister.

Their younger sister, Lea, pushed between the two of them. "You said a bad word, Coop," she said in a sing-song, giggling. "Mommy will ground you again." She frowned – Eliza and Coop were usually found yelling at each other in their respective bedrooms, not in the kitchen! "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," the two older children said in unison, and then they scowled at each other.

"You must be doing _something_," Lea pouted, crossing her arms. She sent them a glare worthy of their mother, her grey eyes narrowed. "You're keeping secrets from me again, just 'cause you're older." Stamping her foot, she shrieked, "Not _fair_!"

Eliza's head raced. All she wanted was to get even with Cooper for getting her punished last week – it'd been hard explaining her continued absence to volleyball practice to Coach Wilson and Bobby and Dinah, for that matter. If Lea made a fuss, though, she might attract their dad, or even Mom, and none of the Jackson children wanted to face her when she was angry.

"You have to promise to keep the secret, Lea," the oldest Jackson child countered. She crouched down until she was at eye level with her five-year-old sister. "We're listening to what Mom and Rachel are saying." Her green eyes boring into her younger sister's grey ones, she said softly, "Don't tell Mommy, okay? We don't want her to be mad." When Lea's dirty blonde head bobbed in acknowledgement, Eliza smiled in triumph and patted her little sister's head.

Cooper, who'd been watching the scene, groaned. "With your skills, you could be a hypnotist," he said drily. "Go figure, Liza."

"It's _E_liza," his sister corrected primly, "and thank _you_."

Without another word, the two of them went back to eavesdropping, Lea soon forgotten.

"... Of _course_ he knocked me up, Annabeth," Rachel snapped, sounding very unlike her usual self. Annabeth wearily decided to attribute it to her hormones. In truth, she hadn't been much better when she was in, er, Rachel's condition – perhaps she had been even worse. But nine months of backaches and cramps and crazy emotions, times three, had amounted to _something_ – three children who were half Annabeth, half Percy, and who acted more often than not like little devils. "How else do you think I got pregnant, eh?"

Taking a long sip from her can of soda, Annabeth quickly changed the subject. "How far along are you, Rach?"

The redhead bit her lip thoughtfully, cocking her head. "Two months, I think."

"Coop? Eliza?" Lea whispered. "What'sa 'knocked up'?"

The twins groaned in unison. "We'll tell you later, Lea," Eliza said. Her green eyes scanned the room, determined to distract Lea. They posed on the box of Barbies near a stack of unopened letters. "Say, why don't you go play with your dolls, kiddo? I think Kelly, um, misses you."

"Yeah, she does," Cooper added. For once, he agreed with his twin. "And Ken, too."

Lea stared at the two of them, and then her lower lip trembled. "Stop making me go!" she wailed, and two large tears slid down her cheeks. Cooper cringed – if this wasn't a full-blown meltdown on his sister's part, he was a girl. Lea stamped her foot. "I'm telling Daddy!"

"He's not here! Anyway, Lea," Eliza hissed. "You _promised_!"

"No! I only said I wouldn't tell Mommy!" Lea cocked her head. "Anyways, _I DON'T CARE_!"

Ignoring her siblings' protests, she pushed open the door leading to the living room and stormed over to her mother and godmother. Lea pointed an accusatory finger at Cooper and Eliza, who felt exposed, all of the sudden. "Mommy, Coop and Eliza are mean! They don't wanna tell me what'sa knocked up means!"

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Annabeth rounded on her two older children. "You were eavesdropping on us, weren't you?"

"I dunno," Cooper muttered.

"Maybe," Eliza said under her breath.

Deciding that the twins were being quite uncooperative, the blonde woman turned to her younger daughter. "'Knocked up' is a grownup word for 'pregnant', sweetie. Me and Rachel were just talking about her pregnancy."

"What's pregnant?"

"It's when there's a baby in a woman's tummy, Lea," Annabeth explained. She sighed. She could feel the Talk coming along... And she was going to kill Percy for being outside, slaying monsters, when she needed him! "_Rachel's_ pregnant."

"Oh," the five-year-old said sagely. "Then how'd it get there?"

Eliza and Cooper tried to hide their laughs at their mother's look of discomfort. They were, however, quickly quieted by the look she shot them. "Well," Annabeth said slowly, her cheeks tingeing pink, "Well, Lea, the baby gets there when... when a man and woman love each other very much, they have a baby."

"Mom, were you purposefully skipping over the, er, finer points?" Eliza inquired, earning herself a dirty look from Annabeth. She looked down. "Never mind, Mom."

"Yeah, never mind," Cooper muttered.

Oblivious to all of this, Lea nodded, her blonde pigtails bouncing up and down. She frowned, her small pink lips set together determinedly. Grabbing her mother's hand to attract her attention, she said loudly, "Then how does the baby come out? Does the doctor slice open your tummy or something?"

Again, the twins stifled laughter. This time, it was Rachel who answered.

"Sometimes, the doctor does," the red-haired woman said, "but mostly, the baby comes out from a... opening."

"What opening?"

Annabeth sighed wearily and whipped round to face Rachel. "Rach, do you still have your old copy of _How Babies Are Made_?"

Her friend looked pensive and grinned. "Sure." She patted Lea's head. "As my duty of godmother, I'll bring it next time I come over, okay, Lea?"

"Okay!" Lea agreed. "I'll tell Daddy when he comes home so he can listen to the story."

Without another word, she slipped out of the living room, the twins following shortly, whispering furiously.

Annabeth flopped into the nearest armchair, sighing. "And this," she said, "is why you should always use a condom when in bed, Rachel."

Rachel patted her still-flat abdomen. "True," she conceded, "but you have to admit, raising the kids brings back memories..."

"True." Annabeth closed her eyes. "_So_ true."

Too true, in her opinion.

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><p><strong>The kids' ages, parents, and stuff: <strong>

**Cooper Jackson - Ten, Annabeth and Percy's only son. Eliza's twin brother. Reddish brown hair, grey eyes. **

**Eliza Jackson - Ten, Annabeth and Percy's older daughter. Cooper's twin sister. Dark brown hair, green eyes. **

**Lea Jackson - Five, Annabeth and Percy's younger daughter. Dirty blonde hair, grey eyes. **

**Marco di Angelo - One, Rachel and Nico's son. Black hair, green eyes. **

**Please read and review! **


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